Chapter 158: The Exchange
"Welcome..."
I nodded to the arriving delegation. In fact, it was the same one that had come to me yesterday, so I only gave them a brief glance. Both my mothers stood beside me, as did my grandmother. Kali stood slightly off to the side, along with Fleur's grandmother and two young Veela.
"Kreacher, bring the prisoners here."
With a soft pop, the prisoners appeared beside us. They were no longer sleeping, and now wore plain but sturdy clothing.
"Father!"
The man who had caused this situation saw his father and started toward him.
"Why did you come here? This misunderstanding was not worth your intervention!"
"Not worth it?"
The man who had not introduced himself cast a contemptuous look at his son.
"Now you will see what your release has cost the House. And if you think that I, the patriarch of House Schultz, August Schultz, will allow you to continue bringing dishonor upon the House, then you are very mistaken."
"Father..."
The man was confused.
"Let us begin."
With a wave of his wand, August forced his son to fall silent.
"We will begin with compensation to House Black for the insult inflicted by my useless son."
With these words, my mothers, my grandmother, and I stepped onto the spell seal, which displayed our combined weight. Then gold was laid out within the same circle. Only Schultz's son watched with wide eyes.
Then two young Veela stepped onto the seal, and gold was likewise laid out according to the agreement: seventy-five percent of the girls' weight. Kali was the last to stand on the seal...
"With this, House Black has no further claims against House Schultz."
Kali and the head of the Veela repeated the same words, and at that moment Schultz's son began to cough.
"This... is not what we agreed on."
Schultz looked at me gloomily.
"Isn't it?"
I raised an eyebrow.
"We agreed to transfer your son to you in exchange for the payment of compensation. Here is your son, and he is alive."
"Yes, but he is clearly ill."
"Well..."
I shrugged.
"He spent some time in the Black cells. Or did you think we put him in a private room with silk-hung walls and evening visits from courtesans? We stuffed him with potions and threw him in a cell while he was out cold. He only came to an hour before the compensation exchange..."
"This is... not what I counted on."
"Isn't it?"
I tilted my head slightly.
"Yes, yesterday you spoke so much about the spirit of the agreement, yet you demand its observance only when it concerns you personally?"
I smiled, but that smile made it clear that a few more words in that tone, and the war of Houses would begin here and now.
"There's a saying... treat others the way you want to be treated. Yesterday, during negotiations, you showed me exactly how you want to be treated. Who am I to deny you?"
The man gritted his teeth while his son doubled over in another coughing fit, literally coughing up blood.
With a wave of his wand, the patriarch of House Schultz vanished the blood from the floor.
"Examine him..."
He nodded to his companion, and the man approached the youth, who had just stopped coughing. Judging by the spells issuing from the wizard's wand, he was a Healer, and a very good one. After a couple of minutes of examination, he turned to Schultz.
"Nothing I can't fix. He'll drink some potions, undergo a few unpleasant procedures, and everything will be fine."
"Are you certain?"
"Yes."
"Good, then we're leaving."
And with that, they left, while I watched them go with a slight smile.
"Goodbye."
I bid farewell to the departing delegation and turned to Fleur's grandmother.
"Linda, do you have any claims?"
"Are you laughing right now? After the compensation you extracted? Even if you'd simply given us a few hundred gold coins, that would have been wonderful. In the end, it never went beyond an ordinary conversation."
"Kali?"
"Fine... I'll buy myself an apartment and put the rest toward helping the Faunus. This will be enough for an apartment, won't it?"
"Mom, this is enough to buy a house!"
Blake said indignantly.
"Uselessly?"
"Well, yes... Better to invest it in the Quarter's medical care. Sponsor potion-brewing or rituals that people currently pay for, so they cost less for residents and are free for children, instead of things the Faunus can handle themselves."
"But..."
"All right, why don't you figure this out later?"
With a wave of my wand, three bags appeared. I layered them with a series of spells, then sent the gold into them.
"All right, Mom, this is for the Quarter's development. Part needs to go to defense, and part to recruiting promising personnel from areas of Britain and London in particular, where such preparation is lacking."
"Good. I'll send the former DMLE members who joined us to handle that. I'll pay overtime and bonuses from this."
"Uh-huh..."
I nodded to Bella.
"Spend part of it on the hospital."
"I'll take care of it."
"Excellent. Divide the rest between food independence and Dust research. For food, it's better to overproduce and sell the surplus than to buy it. We haven't seen many results from Dust research yet, and we need either a reliable way to locate deposits quickly or a way to replace it. Magic is very good, of course, but unlike magic, Dust can be used by ordinary people too."
"Good..."
Walburga nodded.
"...I will oversee it."
"Excellent. Now I think we all have our own matters to attend to..."
*** A Week Later. Germany. ***
"What is wrong with my son?!"
Schultz threw the mug he was holding at the wall, where it shattered, while the Healer beside him nodded calmly.
"He is healthy."
"Healthy? Healthy?! He has coughing fits every hour and coughs up blood!"
"It's not that serious. He's losing very little blood. Severe attacks only happen once or twice a day. And special potions replenish the blood loss. So I don't see anything to worry about."
"Nothing to worry about?! It's a curse!"
"I've checked your son thoroughly. I found no trace of a curse. None at all. So I suspect a family curse has manifested."
"Are you fucking serious?!"
"Absolutely serious."
The Healer remained completely calm.
"These are the damn Blacks! Do you seriously think you can detect a curse cast by someone from that House?!"
"Yes..."
The Healer calmly nodded.
"And why do you think that?"
Schultz suddenly calmed.
"I'm simply thinking logically. Bellatrix isn't a master of Malefica. Of course, as a Black, she surely knows quite a lot about it, but she's a fighter. She wouldn't have been able to cast a spell without leaving traces. Narcissa is a Healer; she simply wouldn't engage in something like that. But even if her son managed to persuade her, she's the opposite type. She could surely cast a complex curse that I wouldn't have the strength to remove, but she couldn't conceal that she cast it. Walburga... no, she's not a Maleficist either..."
"But she had enough time to learn to hide traces."
"Yes, enough..."
The Healer nodded in agreement.
"But she wouldn't do it for another reason: pride. She remembered when the House had been far more powerful. Or rather, she remembered those times, and now they had returned. Yes, the House numbered only four people, but in terms of influence..."
The Healer shook his head.
"...On principle, she wouldn't conceal something like that. She'd even throw it in our faces, as if to say: 'I cursed him as punishment, and you must try to remove it, or he'll die.' Perhaps, in the arrogant manner typical of any representative of such an ancient House, she would even hint at where to find the solution."
"Are you saying I'm the same?"
"And you're claiming you're not?"
The Healer looked fearlessly at his old friend.
"Well, yes... and what about this Lord?"
Mockery and respect intertwined in Schultz's voice.
"He'd lack the knowledge...
The Healer shrugged.
"...No, indisputably, he's a talented young man. To have mastered Charms and Spells at his age..."
The man shook his head.
"...but you yourself must understand, even accounting for the early awakening of his gift and the fact that this genius began studying much earlier than his peers, it must have taken all his free time. Do you think he could have learned Malefica with such a schedule?"
"Well... to learn just one spell..."
"He could."
The man nodded in agreement.
"But there's no one in his family who could drill him in one spell. Flitwick wouldn't involve himself in something like that, and he wouldn't turn to outsiders with such a request."
"You're right... so it's a family curse?"
"Most likely, yes. Don't despair. I'll continue observing your son, and if I learn anything more specific, I'll certainly tell you."
"Thank you... and forgive me for the outburst of anger..."
"I understand."
The Healer nodded and left Schultz's office, while the German sank into his chair and closed his eyes.
"Son, son... what have you gotten yourself into? Who else have you angered?"
*** End. ***
"Draco..."
Daphne entered the office and looked at me carefully.
"Yes?"
"I have..."
She pressed her lips together.
"...a problem."
"Hm? And what problem could my dear maid, who's been my right hand for so long, have?"
I smiled warmly at the girl.
"I... I think I have fallen in love."
"And? What's the problem?"
"Well, he is a Faunus..."
I blinked in surprise.
"That's certainly unexpected, but I don't see a problem with it. You're a kind, sweet girl, and you deserve happiness."
I shrugged.
"This..."
She blinked in confusion.
"...I thought you would scold me..."
"Why?"
"Well... I am..."
"You are what? Daph, you're my most loyal supporter. I'll always trust you, and you'll always work for me. But I've never claimed to be the meaning of your life. So I'm truly glad you found yourself a boy."
"Uh-huh..."
She nodded.
"I... you're really not against it?"
"No. The only thing I'll ask..."
"I know everything!"
She blushed.
"And besides, our relationship isn't like that yet. And... he wants to help me."
"Now that's more complicated."
I sighed, but I thought we could find a way to make it happen. The main thing, after all, was to think everything through.
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